WAYT: The Odds are Favorable for BIG Games

Thursday

Mar 22, 2012 at 12:01 AMMar 22, 2012 at 9:14 PM

There’s a great big world out there, and all it wants to talk about right now is the imminent release of the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games. (To make things easier on me, I’m typing the title as THG throughout this article.) The movie is tracking to open among the top five biggest premiers in Hollywood history!

I devoured THG and the other two books in its series. I loved those books! THG is unflinching and shockingly brutal. The reason I love THG is because it truly left my mouth gaping open – I cannot remember ever having that reaction to a book, and I’ve read a lot of books.

Maybe there are a few people out there who haven’t read THG yet. What are you thinking? Are you waiting to see the movie and then you’ll think about the book? You’ll never read the book and you’ll only see the movie? There’s no way a movie will ever get every single thing right that came out of a book – there’s not enough time. So really, I encourage you to read the books at some point.

I don’t want to write a review of THG and I can’t see the movie right when it premieres so I won’t be able to give you a timely review of the movie. But I can tell you why you should either read the book or see the movie or both.

Don’t worry that it’s marketed as young adult literature or as a young adult movie. I’m an adult and I don’t think that book is for young adults. The violence within its pages is not suited for littles unless they’re maybe 16. I can’t set an age because every kid is different but 16 seems safe to me.

If you worry about our culture – obsessed with reality TV and celebrity and really interested in politics – then you should read this book. It’s sort of a representation of right now, and sort of a cautionary tale about where our society could be headed. Children aged 12 to 18 are drafted into a reality TV death match by random lottery (oh, the bad luck). The nation watches, transfixed, as these babies murder one another simply so that the winner’s district, a futuristic reimagining of the geographic United States, can be a little happier and little less hungry for one year. And so that the power-hungry Capitol can remind the citizens who’s in charge and how much it would hurt The People to fight against The Man.

If you’re not really into romance, this is a great book for you. The main character Katniss and a couple of her friends seem like they should fall into a romance, but there’s no time for that. They’re too busy trying to survive! If it’s not starvation in life outside this battle to the death, it’s a battle to the death threatening to end their lives. The book flirts with the idea of flirting between them, but what I got from Katniss was not one iota of interest in anything sentimental – unless you consider her love for her sister, which is truly boundless and the only reason that Katniss has any warmth in her heart at all.

If you love an underdog story, you’ll sort of get what you like. Katniss’ district has never fared very well in the Games but she’s a rugged tomboy type. She shouldn’t stand a chance if you considered her stats like she was a trading card. But you can’t judge her by what the Capitol knows about her. She’s one of the rare few in the society with secrets. The Capitol didn’t anticipate what Katniss brought to the table.

So to summarize, THG is a grown-up story about kids forced to know more than kids ever should about life and death, with a potential heroine who is tough and marginally sweet. Is that what you’re getting out of the movie previews? If you read the book, is that what you saw?

One final plug: Guys love this book. I had the distinct honor of participating in interview sessions with potential scholarship recipients at my alma mater. Three out of the four boys I met talked about THG in their interview. Granted, I asked them about books so we got there one way or another. But those boys GOT it. They saw the themes and made observations that I didn’t see. I was blown away. Also, my husband read this book! Frank does not read fiction. He prefers non-fiction, biography type books. So this was a real stretch for him. But he devoured THG just like me. It was a great moment in history, and so awesome to see him get a taste of my obsessions with great stories. If men of all ages are reading THG, it’s so worth it! For me and Frank, it’s become a shared interest with a lot of angles to discuss.

Anything that gets everyone talking like this is worth jumping on the bandwagon. I promise that you can trust me on this one.

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